“Good hair” is a loaded phrase in the black community, as it often excludes kinkier textures and tighter coils in preference of straight locks or loose curls. It’s a sensitive topic, and the firestorm surrounding Melanie Fiona’s comments to Sophisticate’s Black Hair Styles and Care Guide shows that the wounds are still fresh.

Here’s an excerpt from Fiona’s feature in the June/July 2012 issue:

SBH: What’s the secret to your gorgeous long hair?
Melanie Fiona: I was born with a full head of hair, and my mom wouldn’t let me cut it until I was 12! I’m mixed – my mom is Black and Portuguese and my dad is Indian so I have a good mix for growth.

“In the future when asked this same question, a much better response would be “I’ve been blessed to always have a head full of hair and never had to concentrate on growing it long.” You can acknowledge your ethnicity but that whole ‘good mix for growth’ girl, if I were part of your PR and marketing team, that statement would be forever banned from your vocabulary! Secondly, where have you been Melanie? Did you not get the memo that we are trying to do away with the term “good hair” in all of its traditional uses?! I need to send her one of those popular t-shirts with the slogan: I got good hair – I got African in my family! Shoooo, she needs the accompanying earrings too! Or maybe we need to have Rev. Al Sharpton conduct a public funeral for the phrase good hair as he did for the N-word!”

What are your thoughts, Clutchettes? Was Melanie Fiona’s “good mix for growth” comment tactless and offensive? Or is being read into too deeply?

I’m a regular ol’ black chick. Any mixed roots I have would’ve come from Massa back in the day. My hair grows exceptionally long because I stopped relaxing it and went natural. All hair will grow if you don’t destroy it with chemicals and / or neglect. You don’t need mixed roots for that to happen – just common sense. If my sisters out there would stop “drinking the Koolaid” and love what grows out of their heads instead of weaving, wigging and frying their hair, literally to DEATH, they would discover just how long black hair grows.

http://Facebook Genevieve

I think it’s being read into way too deeply. She didn’t say she has good hair par say ” she said a good mix for growth.” Because in reality it is easier for some hair types to grow out than others. I’m sure she meant nothing by it, so it’s not that serious. Just my opinion.

Holly

I think too much was read into that comment. Nowadays comments are dissected and if what’s said is not popular opinion the person is attacked. She did not perfectly word her answer, but she also did not try to offend anyone either. She was just asked about her hair